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Databases Part 1 – How To Select The Right Database

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

So you want to build a data driven web site but don’t know what database to use? Maybe it’s an IOS or Android application and not a website at all. Either way, if you collect data, you’re going to want to determine the best way to store it for later. In this article, I’ll talk about what a database is, how to choose the right one, and what comes next.

What Is A Database?

By definition, a database (also commonly referred to as “DB”) is a collection of organized data. For example, if you have written down a list of all the CDs you have in your music collection, a database to represent that might include a table for artists and a table for albums and you could even link them together. This organization of data gives us the ability to work with data in just about every way imaginable, which is so much better than just a list. Examples of this can be seen right here on JoeTech.com. Articles on the main page of the site are shown newest first by sorting the article data, the search option at the top brings back specific articles by using MySQL searching and indexing tools, and your comment on this article gets stored in a comments table so that it can be retrieved later. There’s a lot to know about how databases work, but let’s start with some basics.

Types Of Databases

New databases (like MapD) pop up all the time, and it would be impossible to cover them all. In an effort to keep things simple, I’ll stick to some of the more popular DBs in use.

Some common object oriented databases that have been around for quite a while include MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Oracle. Each database system has its own features and flaws. Oracle is well known for its enterprise stability and support while SQLite is fast, free, and well adapted to smaller data sets. MySQL and Microsoft SQL are extremely popular for use with PHP or ASP/.NET applications, respectively.

In what sounds like competition for the traditional database systems, NoSQL databases have emerged in recent years and have grown quickly in popularity. Known for their ability to easily scale horizontally and store a lot of simple data (like Tweets), NoSQL databases often compromise by lacking a lot of functionality like normalizing across a large number of tables. Some popular NoSQL DBs include MongoDB, memcached, Redis, and CouchDB and can often be easier to get started with due to their simplicity.

A third category of databases that is coming into the light but not a highly used is NewSQL. This category includes new DB technologies that allow for highly scalable databases without the loss of critical functionality for broad data sets. These are perhaps not as critical when you’re starting out, so I won’t go into further detail.

How To Choose The Right Database

Choosing the right database can be paramount to the success of your project and the larger the project, the more important your choice will be. With so many choices, how do you pick the right one?

Before anything else, you need to know your goal. What kind of data – and how much of it – do you expect to store? One thing I look at is how many tables I plan on storing. If it’s just a few, I might default to a NoSQL solution, but if it’s a bunch, I’ll look to a traditional object-oriented DB.

After narrowing down the category of database to use, you’ll need to pick the best one for the job, your budget, etc. If you plan to house your site on a Windows server and program it in .NET, MS SQL is probably a good bet. If you want free and need to have everything on a Linux server with your code in PHP, MySQL is often the way to go. When the client (or your company) demands support contracts and has a budget to deplete, Oracle could be a contender. Look at the specific features and pitfalls of each database before making a decision.

What Comes Next?

Knowing the right database to use is only the beginning. Depending on your hosting environment, you may need to take steps to get the database software installed and then you should:

- Think through all the data you plan to store – every little detail
- Design a database schema – more on schemas in Part 2
- Normalize, index, and otherwise optimize your database – Part 3?
- Connect to your database from your site’s code
- Secure against hacking and injections

As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to storing data for your website or application, but if you take it one step at a time, it’s not so bad. Stay tuned for additional pieces to the database puzzle.

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Posted in Code, How To | No Comments »

Learn About The Web And Programming

Sunday, April 21st, 2013

Look around you… I mean online. Everything you see is powered by some form of web technology. Every day, you interface, indirectly, with MySQL databases, PHP code, and HTML that makes it all show up. Almost everything you touch on the web could be created by you, too, with some time and the right education. Last week, I talked about a slew of places to learn online for free and I know a lot of you are interested in how webpages are created, what programming languages exist, and the technology that drives the web. If you’re worries about where to start or things being too technical, don’t worry. My goal is to introduce more of this kind of information on this blog and help others learn what I know.

So what does all this mean? It means I’m planning to bring you much of my regular content (reviews, guest articles, etc.) as well as new content that explains how stuff works in plain language so everyone can follow along. But first, I need to know what you want to want to learn more about. You can suggest anything, but here’s a list of example topics to get you started:

- Basic HTML
- Glossary of web terms
- How to series (create a web page, set up a form, accept payments online)
- Beginners PHP
- Working with frameworks
- Software for programmers
- How the web works
- What’s a 404 or 403?

Choose from a topic above or offer up your own idea. Give me your request in a comment below and I’ll do my best to accommodate. In addition, loyal viewers may have noticed something new on the right side of the page recently. While in Vegas last January, I met up with a company called Wizpert who connects experts with people who need help. If you ever have a programming or technology question, click the little orange “W” on the right to connect with me on Skype. I’m here to help.

Posted in Code, Computers, How To, web | 3 Comments »

How To Add A Digital Flickering Light To Your Halloween Pumpkin

Monday, October 29th, 2012

It’s that time of the year when costumes are worn, trick-or-treaters skip from house to house, and we dress up our yards to look spooky. While some go all out on decorations and others do not, nearly every house in participation will proudly display a pumpkin, carved with care and lit by a candle. After carving my pumpkin this year, I decided I wanted an eerie red light to go in it, so I headed to my desk and emerged 10 minutes later with my flickering light.

Creating my flickering light was pretty easy and fast. Of course, I already had all the parts, but these can all be obtained from your local electronics store pretty easily. If you don’t have an Arduino, they’re pretty cheap these days and none of this is permanent. I estimate you could make this for a couple bucks if you already have your Arduino.

What You Need

- An Arduino (any model, really)
- Arduino development environment
- 1 red LED light
- 1 9v battery connector
- 1 9v battery

How To Make A Flickering LED Light

Your LED light can be made in just 3 steps:
1. Insert the LED into slots 13 and GND on the Arduino (short leg of the LED in GND)
2. Plug the Arduino in and paste the code below into the development environment.
3. Compile the code and push it to the Arduino.
4. Plug the battery into the adapter.

When your jack-o-lantern is ready, just unplug the Arduino from the computer and plug the battery adapter into the Arduino to turn it on. That’s it. Flickering light!

The Code

long randNumber;

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
randomSeed(analogRead(0));
}

void loop()
{
randNumber = random(500);
Serial.println(randNumber);
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
delay(randNumber);

randNumber = random(1500);
Serial.println(randNumber);
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
delay(randNumber);
}

The Result

Below is a short video of my end result.

Try for yourself and post any questions or thoughts.

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Posted in Code, How To | 17 Comments »

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